Longtail's Placement of Paws
by Grayfeather of RiverClan
Summary: *WARNING* Spoilers for Firestar's Quest, but if you don't know what happens to Longtail, you need to read more.


_The sun was not up_ yet when a pale silvery-gray tabby tom was woken up. A fluffy white shape stood over him, silhouetted in darkness. "Longtail, come hunting with Brackenfur and me. Graystripe told me to take you," Cloudtail's voice drifted from the white shape. Longtail grunted something indistinct and opened his bright blue eyes. They shone like pale silver moons in the darkness and were brilliant. The tom stood up in his nest and stretched, shaking out the comfortableness of last night. All of the warriors were asleep around him; Mousefur's dark brown shape was huddled in the middle of the den with Willowpelt, Thornclaw and Brightheart, brother and sister, were curled up next to each other like kits, and Dustpelt and Ashfur were in their respective nests with an empty nest between them: Ferncloud's nest.

As Longtail left the warriors den, he thought the same thing he always thought, _Tigerstar is gone. BloodClan is gone. I chose the good side. StarClan has forgiven me, or so I think. Please StarClan forgive me for all of the things I did with Tigerstar and Darkstripe, please._

In the clearing, Sandstorm was sitting in front of the Highrock; the pale ginger she-cat was on guard last night. Longtail remembered when she was still a kit; Brindleface would sit in the nursery with Robinwing and Willowpelt as they watched Sandkit, Dustkit, Graykit, and Ravenkit play. Longtail was only Longpaw back then, but he always watched them curiously; how they used to pretend to be cats from different Clans, but who knew back then that their greatest foe would come from their own Clan and the Twolegplace?

Cloudtail was waiting with his apprentice, Rainpaw, and Brackenfur at the gorse tunnel entrance. "Okay, now that we are all here, let's go," Cloudtail mewed and turned into the gorse tunnel, his fluffy white tail billowing behind him. Longtail regretted all of the bad things he said to Firestar and Cloudtail when they joined the Clan as former kittypets, and now they were two of the most respected cats in the Clan. He followed the other three toms out of the camp, bringing up the rear. The sun had just begun to turn the world red with its bloody light. Longtail shook, remembering all of the blood spilled that day. He shook his head again, ridding his mind of the memories. Longtail put all of the stuff behind him to focus on hunting. He scanned the forest with his eyes while Cloudtail scanned it with his ears. He saw a brown shape huddled beneath a bush nibbling on a plant.

Longtail signaled Brackenfur to sneak up behind it and chase it to him with his long black-striped tail. The muscular golden-brown tom slunk through the undergrowth and leaped at the rabbit. He got in position, putting all of his big paws in the correct places, but then everything went by in a blur. The rabbit burst through the undergrowth, it leaped towards his face, and the last thing he saw was Cloudtail's blue eyes go wide with fear. Longtail felt blood spatter his short, thick fur, and he knew that he had finally gotten his punishment. StarClan had finally reprimanded him for all of the things he did with Tigerstar. His prayers had not worked; StarClan hated him, and now they took away his greatest strength: his sight.

* * *

Longtail navigated his way through the hollow that was the ThunderClan camp. He heard everybody, and could picture what everybody was doing. He had learned through his time with the elders that StarClan had no control over what happened to him; he could have gotten his eyes hurt or he could have caught the rabbit, it was the placement of his paws that made the exact spot to be clawed. Now Longtail could get the full picture of everything; he could feel, hear, and smell, and then picture it in his mind. With his eyesight gone he could see more; he could see everything that cats with eyes couldn't see, and he knew that Jaypaw would soon discover the same thing for himself. Brightheart would learn too. The world is much bigger that the things we can see. It is the tiny things like the placement of paws that change a lifetime.


End file.
